A middle school nurse in Tennessee is being praised for her heroic actions. When Carrie Stephenson showed up to her job at West Bemis Middle School last Friday, she was expecting an ordinary day. Instead, she ended up saving a boy’s life.
According to ABC10, Stephenson, a nurse at the middle school, had been called to the hallway to help 13-year-old Isaiah Griffin, who had been vomiting.
For Isaiah it started as just another school day. He went to school like normal and feeling perfectly fine. But then, shortly after arriving on campus, he began to feel ill and started vomitting.
When nurse Stephenson arrived to check on Isaiah her first thought was Isaiah had the same stomach virus that a few other kids had, but she just knew something wasn’t right. She knew that he was in trouble. Her suspicions were confirmed by what happened next.
“I honestly thought he was fixin’ to die,” Stephenson said.
She immediately insisted that Isaiah be rushed to the hospital, instead of being sent home with his mom to rest
When they arrived at the hospital, Isaiah’s family learned that Isaiah was having a stroke from a blood clot that was just an inch away from his brain stem.
Thanks to Stephenson’s quick-thinking, Isaiah was treated right away and his outlook is pretty good, though he may need some physical and occupational therapy after having the clot removed
Nurse Stephenson is being called a hero, but she doesn’t think of herself that way. When asked about her actions, she just said that she did what she hopes any other nurse would do.
Isaiah is extremely grateful for a second chance at life, and tells others, “Never give up. Always believe.”
Isaiah’s mother Debra couldn’t be more thankful to this nurse.
“I could have been planning a funeral,” Debra said. “He could have not seen his 14th birthday.”
Nurse Stephenson, who has been working at the middle school for three years, says this is the most serious situation she’s ever had to deal with.
“To me it was just the grace of God showing through. God was all over that,” she said.
